Areas We Cover
Categories
San Francisco
(Bay Area)
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Music Review: JONAS KAUFMANN, tenor, & HELMUT DEUTSCH, piano (The Broad Stage in Santa Monica)
THESE LIEDERS ARE NOW ON MY LISZT Something incredibly special is happening in Santa Monica. The Broad Stage has reopened this week with live performances from German Tenor Jonas Kaufmann last night and The Danish String Quartet last Saturday, both of whom are in extraordinary demand in their fields of opera and chamber music. Both…
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Music Review: SCHUBERT 5 & DESSNER VIOLIN CONCERTO (Pekka Kuusisto, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the SF Symphony)
BRYCE DESSNER AND PEKKA KUUSISTO: AN EXTRAORDINARY TEAM Last night, I had the rare and honored experience of being present at what I think may have been an historic musical event. It was the first United States performance of Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto (2021) which was co-commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, and which, under…
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Theater Review: THE CLAIM (Shotgun Players in Berkeley)
THE RETURN OF THE SHOTGUN PLAYERS It is always a pleasure to come across a playwright with a love for (and a gift for) language and, better, an appreciation for the comic possibilities of wordplay. Tim Cowbury is just such a playwright, and his play The Claim, which was a runaway success at the 2019…
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Music Review: EXOTIC BIRDS: DEBUSSY, MESSIAEN AND SAARIAHO (Esa-Pekka Salonen and the SF Symphony)
EXOTIC BIRDS, 47 SPECIES OF BIRDS, AND DEBUSSY BY LAND AND BY SEA Esa-Pekka Salonen walked slowly to the podium and when he arrived, he stood, frozen, for an extended period of time, as if he were calling upon a moment of silence and so, when the first bars of Claude Debussy’s Prélude í L’Après-midi d’un faune…
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Theater Review: MY FAIR LADY (National Tour)
STILL THE FAIREST I’m rather certain one cannot visit enough productions of My Fair Lady. The 1956 musical, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, tells the tale of Professor Henry Higgins, a puffed-up upper-class grammarian, and Eliza Doolittle, his lower-class, flower girl protégé whom Higgins turns into a lady by changing her speech. With one of the most…
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Opera Opening: FIDELIO (Live & Virtual, San Francisco Opera)
TO BREAK FREE, SHE HAD TO BREAK IN San Francisco Opera’s return to live performances in the War Memorial Opera House continues October 14–30 with a bold, new production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts this monumental work in which love and courage overcome tyranny. Director Matthew…
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Concerts: SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY’S 2021–22 FILM SERIES (Davies Symphony Hall)
SFS’s Film Series, featuring the Orchestra performing the live accompaniment to iconic films as they are projected on a large screen above the stage, returns. And this season is a knockout. Tickets are available now and can be purchased online at sfsymphony.org or by calling the SFS Box Office at 415-864-6000. All performances takes place…
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Opera: FREE OPERA STREAMS IN AUGUST (San Francisco Opera)
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA’S FREE OPERA STREAMS IN AUGUST Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Ní¼rnberg August 7–8 Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux August 14–15 San Francisco Opera is returning to the War Memorial Opera House stage for the opening of its 99th season, which begins with Puccini’s Tosca on August 21. In anticipation, the Company has added two weekly, free opera streams for…
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Music / Opera: THE NO ONE’S ROSE (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale & American Modern Opera Company)
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale (PBO) presents the world premiere of The No One’s Rose at Stanford University’s Bing Concert Hall on August 26–29, 2021. (Tickets available HERE.) This production from American Modern Opera Company combines music, dance, poetry, and theater, and features a new score by Matthew Aucoin, set to poetry of Holocaust survivor Paul Celan — alongside music…
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Virtual Theater: WORD FOR WORDCAST (Word for Word’s Second Podcast Season)
NOW THIS IS HOW YOU TELL A STORY Over the last 28 years, San Francisco’s Word for Word theater company has performed short stories of over 100 writers, ranging from Alice Munro to Amy Tan, Tobias Wolff, and James Baldwin. Word for Word believes in the power of the short story to provide solace, compassion,…
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Virtual Opera: EVEREST – A GRAPHIC NOVEL OPERA (The Dallas Opera and San Francisco’s Opera Parallí¨le)
THE DALLAS OPERA RELEASES OPERA PARALLÈLE’S EVEREST – A GRAPHIC NOVEL OPERA, A NEW ORIGINAL FILM The Dallas Opera (TDO) is bringing a new film to its streaming platform, thedallasopera.TV, as part of its Originals collection. Available starting July 16, 2021, San Francisco-based Opera Parallèle’s innovative film production of Everest – A Graphic Novel Opera is offered…
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Broadway & Regional Theater: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD (Lyric Theatre in New York; Curran in San Francisco; Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto)
IT’S SAFE TO SAY THERE’S MAGIC IN STORE You know, I was never bored watching the epic two-part Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; it truly was a magical experience, and the production team deserved congratulations. But Jack Thorne’s script, I thought, could use some judicious trimming. And now that’s happened, due in large part (according…
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Music | Dance | Theater: CAL PERFORMANCES (2021-22 Season)
SUPERCALILINEUP Talk about coming back with a bang! Berkeley’s Cal Performances has announced its 2021–22 season, and the Bay Area is getting the best line-up I have seen since well before the pandemic shut everything down. The world’s greatest artists in jazz, classical, opera, pop, dance, theater, and more are heading to Berkeley, leaving you…
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Virtual Theater: TALES OF THE CITY, THE MUSICAL (American Conservatory Theater, Broadway On Demand)
A.C.T. OFFERS ONLINE SCREENING OF ARMISTEAD MAUPIN’S TALES OF THE CITY, THE MUSICAL Filmed during its original 2011 run, this 10th Anniversary event will stream during San Francisco Pride Week on Broadway On Demand’s National Theater Network 10 years ago this month, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) presented the much-anticipated (and very sold out) musicalization of Armistead…
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Virtual Theater: NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN (The Marsh)
I’ve known about Brian Copland’s work for years, but didn’t get a chance to see the Bay Area performer until the virtual presentation of his solo show The Jewelry Box, easily one of the most effective one-man shows I have ever seen. (See my review here.) On June 19 (Juneteenth) The Marsh will offer a…
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Music: SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY (Live Concerts, Davies Hall)
The San Francisco Symphony will be increasing audience capacities for live concerts at Davies Symphony Hall in May and June, 2021, following the City’s approval of the Symphony’s Health & Safety Plan. Audience capacities for performances on May 13–June 25 will be increased to 35% of Davies Symphony Hall’s total capacity. There will be two…
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Virtual Dance: HELGI TOMASSON’S SWAN LAKE (SF Ballet)
San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) is presenting Helgi Tomasson’s Swan Lake from May 20 to June 9, 2021, closing SF Ballet’s 2021 Digital Season. The archival capture from 2016 stars Principal Dancers Yuan Yuan Tan as Odette-Odile and Tiit Helimets as Prince Siegfried. Swan Lake offers standout roles for the corps of 30 swans and Odette-Odile,…
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Virtual Theatrical Event: COMMUNION (A.C.T. in San Francisco)
American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is stretching the theatrical landscape with the world premiere production of Obie Award–winning Bay Area playwright Christopher Chen’s virtual play, Communion. It’s a thrilling interactive theatrical event on Zoom which is performed live May 28–June 27, 2021 for a limited number of attendees at each performance. It will feature Bay Area favorite Stacy Ross in her…
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Film: FRAMELINE45 FILM FESTIVAL (Pride Night and more)
FRAMELINE45 FILM FESTIVAL JUNE 10–27, 2021 NOW WITH VIRTUAL SCREENINGS NATIONWIDE Frameline’”the world’s longest–running and largest showcase of queer cinema’”returns this year with Frameline45: The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, running June 10–27, 2021. Slated to be the most attended and longest festival in Frameline history, this year’s offerings will include a mix of in–person…
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Cabaret: FEINSTEIN’S AT THE NIKKO (San Francisco’s Premier Nightclub Re-Opens This Week)
FEINSTEIN’S AT THE NIKKO ANNOUNCES REOPENING WITH LINEUP OF FAN FAVORITES, BROADWAY STARS, AND LOCAL ICONS Following a year of shuttered doors, Feinstein’s at the Nikko announced today they will reopen later this month with a lineup of fan favorites, Broadway stars, and local icons who will take the stage at San Francisco’s premier nightclub. Tickets…
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